1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a casing structure for encasing meat products. More specifically, the invention relates to such a casing structure which comprises a stockinette with an integrally formed netting arrangement.
2. Description of Prior Art
It is known in the meat encasing art to encase meat and poultry products, especially during the cooking and/or smoking process, such as hams, poultry and the like, in netting arrangements. Such netting arrangements typically comprise a plurality of equally sized squares made of cotton or poly, and an elasticized strand material in the tubular form. The meat products are stuffed into the tubes such that the elasticized material is under tension, and the two ends of the tube of netting are then closed.
Because the meat product is stuffed into the tube with the elasticized material under tension, the strands tend to push back into the meat product to form squared indentations on the outer surface of the meat product. The meat product bulges out between the strands on either side of the indentations giving a desirable "checkerboard" pattern on the surface.
One of the problems in the art is that the product which bulges out between the strands can also bulge laterally whereby they will overlap, and cover, at least some of the strands. This makes it difficult to peel the netting off the meat product, especially when the bulges on either side of the strand bulge towards each other.
In the latter case, and taking into account the fact that the meat product contains binding materials, when the bulges on either side of a strand, bulging towards each other, physically contact each other, they can bind together so that it will be necessary to break the surface of the meat product at the binding points to peel the netting off the surface of the meat product.
One solution to these problems is to use a collagen film in association with the netting arrangement. The collagen film underlies the netting and overlies the outer surface of the meat product. The collagen film provides some restrictions on the bulging meat as it will permit the underlying meat product to bulge only upwardly, but it will substantially prevent the meat product from bulging laterally, so that the elasticized strands forming the netting will not be covered by laterally spreading bulges, thereby preventing the binding of the meat product to the netting. The binding of the meat is to the collagen. The meat product is sold to the consumer with the collagen covering. In addition, the intervention of the collagen film will prevent the bulges from binding to each other.
While the collagen film overcomes the above problems, it presents a different problem, namely, high costs. Collagen film, on a per unit basis, costs approximately four times as much as the netting arrangement so that the cost of casing meat products using a collagen film and netting arrangement combination is seriously increased.
In addition, when the collagen film is used, air bubbles can form between the outer surface of the meat product and the collagen film. This causes an unattractive appearance in the meat product, especially when the meat product is cooked.
To overcome the above problems, a stockinette has been devised which takes the place of a collagen film in the above-described combination. The stockinette is a closely knit or closely woven tubular member knit or woven of threads comprising, for example, cotton, polyester, nylon or other suitable materials. Because the stockinette is knit or woven, it is stretchable and has openings. As it is closely knit or woven, the openings are very small. This finely knit stockinette acts to restrict the meat particles from penetrating through, thereby resisting the stockinette to be stuck to the meat product. However, the stockinette is porous enough to have the benefit of allowing easy smoke penetration into the meat product. Additionally, the stockinette can be treated with various solutions (for example, liquid smoke, oils, acid solutions, etc.), or coated with a film (for example, cellulose), to further enhance the peelability, if required. Also with the stockinettes, air bubbles between the outer surface of the meat product and the stockinette are substantially eliminated. In addition, the cost of the stockinette per unit is substantially less than the cost of the collagen film.
However, the stockinette and netting arrangement combination is still relatively expensive, and it also requires a two-step stuffing process, i.e., the meat product is first stuffed in the stockinette and then the meat product and stockinette are stuffed into the netting arrangement.